HON. E. W. STAFFORD AND THE COLONIAL OFFICE.

Southland Times, Issue 1186, 2 July 1869, Page 3

HON. E. W. STAFFORD AND THE COLONIAL OFFICE.

Tk reference to ohe Duke of Buckingham's despatch refusing all aid to the colony, Mr Stafford writes the following j ab!e memorandum : — " Under any circumstances Ministers would not wish to. discuss the decision further, were it not that the despatch of the Ist December contains statements and arrgutnents meant in comformity with a not uncommon practise) to administer a a reproof to the Colonial Government and Legislature, the justice of which cannot be tacitly admitted. The fallacious inference contained in the statement that 220,000 Europeans, j aiped by royal natives, are " able to defend j themselves, it they make proper arrangements against a few thousand disaffected natives, of whom a few hundred only appear to be at present in arms/ has , often been pointed out to the Secretary j of State for the Colonies. The statement is true enough literally, and the European population have for three years past been so defending themselves. But the reproach implied, that the colonists are cowardly and remiss in their exertions is unjust. It is as if, supposing a force of half a million armed rebels to occupy the ceutre of Scotland or Ireland, making muderous raids in all directions, the industrious and peaceful inhabitants were, upon asking for a few regiments in Edinburgh or Dublin, to be taunted with the statement that the British Islands contained thirty millions of souls, who with good arrangements ought to protect themselves. Such a taunt, thoughtless in itself, ought not to be cast against a colony which, under Imperial leaders, has incurred a war debt, larger per head of its population than the national debt of Great Britain. Nor is the Colonial Offi.ce excusable if it is ignorant that of the 220,000 Europeans in New Zealand, two-thirds occupy the Southern Island, safe from menace by savage neighbours ; that of the remaining third, one half occupy the large towns of Auclarid and Wellington in almost equal security ; and the rest, whose lives and property are at stake, are a bare sixth, , living scattered along a coast line of 1000 miles in length ; whilst the disaffected tribes are inland, unencumbered by property or by civilised habits and wants, and their movements coverd by dense forests and mountain ranges. Other facts which should be well known at the Colonial Office, as 'o the proportion of adult males in the two races, magnify the inj ustice. Those who sneer at the defensive arrangements of the colony should recollect that when one of England's best Generals, at the head of 10,000 British soldiers and 5000 colonial auxiliaries, besides friendly natives, encountered the same foe whom the colony has vow to face (but at a time when that foe was leas experienced), the result was neither brilliant nor conclusive. If so' a colony, exhausted in purse, yet straining every nerve, may be spared sneers for having preferred so modest a request for aid. "The abandonment by the Home Government of all control over Native policy" was not, as stated by his Grace, " conditional on being totally relieved j from any responsibility in respect of the military defence of of the settlers ; " indeed, the very contrary is the fact. Nor wa3 that abandonment, as is suggested, a favor conferred on the colony at its own request, but a burden imposed upon it in spite of earnest remonstrances. When, in 1862, the Imperial Government proposed to abdicate reaponßibility, the New Zealand Legislature, on the earliest opportunity, deliberately declared their unwillingness to relieve the empire and the Ministry who had agreed to the tranofer resigned upon the vote then taken. Elaborately prepared addresses to her Majesty from both Houses were then passed, setting forth the objections to each a transfer. Iv the face, however, of these careful protests, the responsibility was thrust upon the colony, which had no choice but to take it up. But in doing so both Houses of the Legislature used the 'following emphatic wards : " The House * * * recognises the thoroughly efficient aid which her Majesty's Imperial Government is now affording for the * * * establishment of law and order # # * ans relyiny on the cordial co-operation of the Imperial^Government for the fnture, cheertully accepts the responsibility," &c. Afterwards, in 1864, the experience of the ill effects of divided authority during a war not then ended, led the New Zealand Legislature to propose, as a means of restoring unity to the counsels of the colony, the withdrawal of the troops, which had already been indicated by the Imperial Government. But even then, at a time when one overpowering evil cried loudly for a remedy, the Legislature held to the opinion that the Empire had yet duties and interests in New Zealand. They looked on time as an element in the question of removal, and, not hastily, but by deliberate amendments on more sweeping proposals of the Government of Mr Weld, qualified the request for the removal of troops by the expression " at th 3 earliest possible period consistent with the maintenance of Imperial interests and the safety of the colony." Thus his Grace's statement teems with inaccuracies and anachronisms. The advent of the great army, and the Waikato campaign, were long subsequent to the first, and contemporaneous with the second professed abdication of control over native affairs. The confiscation- policy of 1863 was allowed before the commencement of the withdrawal of the army. The law under which the confiscations took place was left to its operation, not on condition of total relief from responsibility, but upon the amendment of some of its clauses ; and the despath of of Lord Carnarvon, of the Ist December, 1866, offering a reaiment without subsidy, was written between two and three years after the allowance of the confiscation policy, and when every act of confiscation i bad been effected.

The Imperial Government themselves appear, for a long time after declining authority in the matter, to have had an indistinct impression that it was not possible — or no t honorable — thus to divest themselves oi their duty to the Maorirace. Stipulations have been from time to time made that sums should be expended by the colony for "native purposes," in consideration of Imperial military aid. Such a stipulation is the basis of Lord Carnarvon's despatch and offer of the Ist December, 1866. This stipulation, thoiigb. not formally accepted by the colony, had been constantly complied with iv practice, and the services of one Imperial regiment had enjoyed up to the date of the defeats of the colonial forces under Col. M'Donnell. The announcement that this last regiment was to leave came about the same time. Then the Legislature, in the dis- ■ tress of the colony, which was suffering I from comiiierciaf depression and overburdened finaricies, as well as from military disaster, resolved to 1 accept formally the terms offered in December, 1866. They did not revoke their decision on the general question, or contemplate the active use of Imperial troops. They exerted every effort to meet their difficulties themselves ; but they viewed with anxiety the removal of the Imperial standard at the particular juncture, in the midst of savage warfare, as tending "to increase the excitement and confidence of the rebel natives, and to ! discourage those friendly to her Majesty's Government," and stimulating, in fact, an internecine war of races. In the meantime, the Imperial Government , seems to have ceased to recognise that it has any duty or responsibility with respect to either one race or the other. The despatch under review revokes Lord Carnarvon's offer, strangely asserting at the same time that the Colonial Government and Lepislature, in their express acceptance of the conditions dictated by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, " merely requested that a British regiment may be allowed to remain in the colony, without any condition whatever." His Grace's statements and reasoning are perhaps good enough to furnish out a foregone conclusion, and their defectiveness is only referred to in defence of the character of the colony for energy and intelligence, consistency and sincerity.